WEEKEND BOX OFFICE: The Lego Movie repeats atop the chart with a leggy 48 million on a mere 29 percent drop from its debut; that's dang good, even accounting for a longish Valentines/President's Day weekend. In context, 48 million would be the 5th biggest opening weekend in any February. Still performing like a Pixar pic (100 million in 8 days), with no competition until Mr Peabody shows up in March. The About Last Night remake places with 27 million against a 15 million budget. The Robocop remake shows with 21 million, but only 26 million since opening last Wednesday against a 100 million budget; it will need hefty overseas grosses to wind up in the black, once marketing and such is factored in. The Monuments Men takes the fourth slot with 15 million on adecent 32 percent drop, This one should recoup its 70 million production budget here, and make up the rest worldwide. The Endless Love remake rounds out the Top 5 with 13.4 million against a reported 20 million budget. Below the fold, Winter's Tale opened in seventh with 7.8 millionagainst a reported 45 million budget. Ouch.

ELLEN PAGE came out as a lesbian at the Time to Thrive conference Friday, though I can't imagine many are surprised.

DARREN SHARPER allegedly drugged multiple women and raped them in his hotel room.

THE BAFTA AWARDS went to these folks.

GEORGE WASHINGTON: Though now lumped in with everyone for Presidents' Day, tomorrow is the birthday of the "Father of his Country." In 1776, David McCullough notes that when Washington took command in July 1775, he thought he would be home at Mount Vernon by Christmas. McCullough catalogs Washington's blunders -- many of them nearly fatal to the Cause -- but concludes: "He was not a brilliant strategist or tactician, nor a gifted orator, not an intellectual... He had made serious mistakes in judgment. But experience had been his great teacher from boyhood... and above all, Washington never forgot what was at stake, and he never gave up." That, as much as anything, is why Washington is usually ranked among the greatest of US presidents. not to mention the subject of a profane, animated rap cartoon.

...with VALENTINE'S DAY: I've never been a big Valentine's Day guy, but I have always liked The Replacements' "Valentine" and Elvis Costello's cover of "My Funny Valentine." Beyond that, my thoughts this year drift to the Velvet Underground's "I'll Be Your Mirror," The Beatles' "In My Life," and the Beach Boys' "God Only Knows." I think it's probably very difficult to write a straight-ahead, universal love song, and these three are great.

NINE SONGS ABOUT SEEING YOUR EX MAKING OUT, courtesy of The A.V. Club.

CUTOUT BIN: From Gary Wright to Wilson Pickett, from The Pursuit of Happiness to Joy Division, from Van Halen to Weezer, plus ELO, Ike & Tina Turner, INXS, Tegan & Sara and more -- this Friday's fortuitous finds are streaming from the Pate page at the ol' HM.

NOW SHOWING:This weekend's wide releases include the remake of RoboCop, which opened Wednesaday with 49 percent on the ol' Tomatometer; Winter's Tale, which is currently scoring 13 percent; the remake of Endless Love, scoring 17 percent; and the remake of About Last Night, scoring 76 percent.

RALPH WAITE, known to millions as John Walton Sr. on the warmhearted 1970s TV series The Waltons – and, more recently, as the Mark Harmon character's father, Jackson "Jack" Gibbs, on the CBS hit NCIS – died at his Palm Desert home at about 11 a.m. Thursday, according to the Desert Sun. He was 85.

EGYPT: Security forces reportedly thwarted an assassination attempt on a top security official in Giza. The army spokesman said 112 Islamist militants have been killed or wounded in operations in North Sinai in the past week.

ROSANNE CASH talks to Mashable about the music business, social media and how her father might have responded to the changing landscape.

AGAINST ME! Laura Jane Grace and and guitarist James Bowman talk to Rolling Stone about gender, dysphoria, and more.

PHILIP SEYMOUR HOFFMAN's diaries reveal a man who was troubled by “demons” and struggled to control them with Narcotics Anonymous meetings: “It definitely contained some soul-searching. But there is also a fair amount of rambling that doesn’t make sense.”

SID CAESAR, one of the first stars created by television via his weekly live comedy program Your Show of Shows, died Wednesday in his home. He was 91.

THE UNITED KINGDOM: Police searched a residence in Crawley, West Sussex, said to have been the home of British suicide bomber Abdul Waheed Majid a.k.a. Abu Suleiman al-Britani, who detonated in an Al Nusrah Front assault on Aleppo prison in Syria last week.

THE UNITED STATES: Senior US intelligence officials offered a more alarming assessment of al-Qaeda than President Barack Obama’s declaration that the organization is on the run and headed toward defeat.

SYRIA: A senior U.S. intelligence official warned of a "very real" risk of extremist groups gaining control of Syrian chemical or biological weapons.

RAY DAVIES, DONOVAN, Graham Gouldman, Mark James and Jim Weatherly are the latest group of inductees to the Songwriters Hall of Fame on June 12. Solid. From a Pate perspective, notable that Gouldman wrote "For Your Love."

SHIRLEY TEMPLE BLACK, ho as a dimpled, precocious and determined little girl in the 1930s sang and tap-danced her way to a height of Hollywood stardom and worldwide fame that no other child has reached, died on Monday night at her home in Woodside, Calif. She was 85. Her daughter Lori was a bassist for the Melvins.

TOM BROKAW revealed he has been diagnosed with cancer and said he and his physicians are very encouraged with the progress he is making.

SYRIA: The Obama administration is engaged in a debate about the extent of the president’s powers to use lethal force against terrorist organizations, and the deliberations have been accelerated by al-Qaeda’s recent decision to sever ties with a violent Islamist group in Syria.

THE UNITED STATES is said to be considering a drone strike on an American member of al Qaeda in an unnamed foreign country who is plotting attacks against US citizens overseas. President Obama and President Hollande of France jointly announced new strategic cooperation between their countries on combating terrorism as well as other endeavors.